


two breaths walking

by coldplayergeek



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Fluff, Hanahaki Disease, Internalized Homophobia, Love Confessions, M/M, bone hurting flowers, hnng, i love them, i really really love them, oww oof my bones, that's basically a tag on all my fanfics what the fuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 02:35:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10912575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coldplayergeek/pseuds/coldplayergeek
Summary: chrom was able to easily swing a sword and end the lives of his enemies on the battlefield without a second thought.he wasn't expecting something as trivial as puppy love to leave him helpless, much less struggling to cling onto life.he didn't know that the cure to his problem was so obviously hidden, however.





	two breaths walking

**Author's Note:**

> i've never written for a hanahaki au before i'm just going to say that so please go easy on me  
> i used my own interpretation of the disease- it's fundamentally the same. "unrequited love", lovey dovey flowers, nyall know the deal.  
> eventually the flowers intertwine themselves in your bones (hence the "oww oof my bones" and "bone hurting flowers" tags), making it hard for you to walk. in some extreme cases the flowers will also make their way into your heart and lungs, which can be a b i g problem obviously  
> also, as the disease runs its course, you stop coughing up flowers as they get too deeply intertwined in your system to be coughed up, and it turns into mostly just blood, which also is a big problem  
> i'm also Not going to kill my favorite blue prince boy off so i made it so that you only get hanahaki when you -think- they don't like you back. you also start puking up just all the flowers, no blood, if you find out they like you back.  
> ofc i took the title from a vocaloid song. just look it up i ain't gonna put a link here, i'm posting this from my school ipad (which they monitor) and i'm not going to let them see i like chinese cartoons along with chinese video games

Hanahaki disease- a disease in which flowers form in your lungs, and in some extreme cases, your heart, from unrequited love. Its only remedy is removing the flowers- which also removes the love you hold for the person.  
The disease is fatal.

There’s a rumor that you can get rid of the flowers by confessing your love to the person who’s the cause of it. Something about blood rushes and coughing it all up.  
Chrom didn’t buy it. Even if the rumors were true, he wouldn’t be able to work up the courage to confess.  
How strange. He was able to swing a sword on the battlefield with no thought, but something as trivial as puppy love left him helpless.  
He keeled over, gagging and coughing up a mixture of blood and thorny rose petals onto the meadow ground.  
The disease was in its very late stages. Lissa had urged him to go for the rumored cure from the start- the flowers had been too deeply intertwined in him for magic to get them out. She was one of the only people besides Chrom himself who knew of his disease. Frederick also knew, of course. He also encouraged Chrom to talk to Robin, and tell him about his feelings.  
Chrom didn’t want to. He didn’t want the relationship to feel forced. What if Robin didn’t like him back? Hanahaki was basically an indicator of him not liking him back.  
\---  
“It can’t hurt to at least give it a try, Chrom! You’re going to just hurt more if you stay silent!” Lissa crossed her arms and pouted a bit.  
“I don’t want to pressure Robin. I don’t want him to feel forced into a relationship.”  
“Milord, milady is right. If I am correct, you will perish from it soon enough.”  
“Thanks for the reminder, Frederick. Besides, it’s a bit of a taboo for, well… two men to love each other, isn’t it? And a general with his chief tactician, well, it just doesn’t sound right.”  
Lissa sighed.  
“You’re literally the prince of Ylisse. I’m sure those things don’t mean anything to someone of your status.”  
Chrom rose from the position he was sitting in, wincing from the flowers in his lungs making themselves known with thorns.  
“If anything, it means more for me. I need to pass down the bloodline. Ever since… Emm died, I’ve been set to be the exalt, no? I’ll need a daughter or son to take my place when I die.”  
“Just adopt. It’s that easy.”  
“We’d lose the brand.”  
“Surrogacy or something, then? It doesn’t really matter right now, Chrom. What matters is that you’re literally dying from a bunch of lovey dovey flowers!” Lissa was visibly irritated.  
“Then so be it.”  
“...Chrom, it isn’t like you to give up so easily.”  
“I’m well aware. I have a lot on my mind. If I may be blunt, I’d like to be alone for now.” Chrom was being honest- he had a lot to think about, and felt a familiar stirring in his stomach as well.  
Lissa and Frederick exchanged glances.  
“Very well, milord.”  
And so, Chrom made his way outside of the castle.  
\---  
Chrom kept replaying that past conversation in his head. It was surely true that both Frederick and Lissa were concerned about his wellbeing and the progression of the disease. They made an effort to pair him up with Robin in battle regularly, as well as do little things such as give up seats next to him for the tactician in the mess hall or various other places. Though definitely out of mostly desperation, they also just wanted their brother or liege to be happy.  
Chrom gagged again as another wave of bloody petals flew out of his lungs and stomach. It wasn’t pretty. It was absolutely disgusting. As the disease had progressed, the mixture of what had been mostly petals at the beginning had turned to just blood with rose petals ocassionally popping up in it. Chrom knew that it wasn’t healthy to cough up all of this blood. But, what better was there to do? Actually confess? He wasn’t going to do that.  
It had been getting harder to move and breathe as the disease had progressed, as well. The flowers had wrapped themselves around Chrom’s bones, in his lungs, his heart, treating them as if they were branches to grow on. He had to put up with it, though. There was nothing else to do-  
“Chrom, what are you doing?”  
Fuck. Gods dammit. Shit. All of the swears in the world couldn’t express what Chrom felt right now.  
Robin had found him.  
At what might’ve been the worst time possible, as well.  
Robin placed a hand on the prince’s back, causing him to tense up. He hadn’t seemed to notice the flowery excess Chrom had been spewing prior to his arrival.  
“Are you okay? You don’t look well.”  
Chrom definitely hadn’t been looking his best for the past few days. When you’re vomiting nearly every other hour, it’s a bit hard to look presentable.  
“Robin, I’m fine. Thank you for your concern.”  
“Lissa told me you’d be like this.” The tactician sighed. “Clearly, there’s something wrong with you. It’s my duty to remedy it.”  
“Robin, it’s true that I haven’t been feeling at my hundred percent for a little while now. But, I swear, I’m fine. It’s just a virus running its course.”  
Robin shifted his gaze to rest on the flower petals on the ground, his eyes widening as he gasped at the sight.  
“Are you sure that’s just a virus?”  
Robin pointed at the bloody roses on the ground. He knew what hanahaki disease was. Chrom had just been found out.  
“It’s in its super late stages, Chrom, if those flower petals are a good indicator. You have a week left to live if we don’t find a cure.”  
“The only way we can stop it is if I confess to the person I like, and they like me back. The flowers are too deeply intertwined or something.”  
“Then, who do you like?”  
“I don’t want to tell them.”  
“Chrom, come on. Remember that talk we had about not dying? I’d kinda be pissed off if I lost you to a bunch of flowers.”  
“Robin, I don’t want to tell you.”  
“I’ll tell them for you. I’m sure they’ll like you back.”  
Chrom gave up with dodging the question at this point.  
“Robin, I love you.”  
It took a while for Robin to register what Chrom had just told him. The prince stared at the tactician while he braced himself for inevitable rejection.  
Was… was Robin crying? There were tears forming in the corners of his eyes. He flung his arms around Chrom.  
“I… I love you too.”  
“Are you sure? You aren’t doing this just to save me? You’ll be happy with me?”  
Chrom was silenced by Robin kissing him, gently and slowly. Chrom was well aware that his breath stank- he had just gotten done with throwing up a bunch of blood, so… but Robin didn’t seem to care.  
They parted lips. Robin gave him a smile.  
“I’m sure that I love you. I wish I noticed this earlier. I’ve been harboring affection for you for about two months now.”  
Something about this did it for Chrom. Blood rushed through his veins, and his heart was pumping faster than usual.  
He kneeled over, and started gagging again, vomiting up nothing but thorny flowers. No blood.  
So. The cure did work. That was good to know. Chrom knew that the flowers he’d just vomited up were just the beginning- there were clearly more flowers in his system that he’d eventually gag up.  
When he finished, Robin kissed him again. He didn’t seem to care that he had just gotten done throwing up a bunch of roses. As the kiss deepened, the prince was forced over onto the grass from the force. Robin made his way onto Chrom’s lap, sitting on it.  
When they stopped kissing, the white-haired tactician nuzzled his head into the crook of the prince’s neck, his hands making their way down to hold the other’s.  
“I promise, I love you. I want you to feel better, that’s for sure, but I also really do love you.”  
Chrom felt completely and utterly on top of the world at that point. He felt tears brimming in his eyes as well- out of pure happiness. It had been a while since he’d been this joyful.  
“Robin, I…”  
“I know. I love you too.”  
They sat in silence for a little while, Robin using a gloved hand to wipe a tear that had fallen down Chrom’s cheek. The wind made itself known in the silence, flowing through the air and ruffling the two men’s hair.  
“Should we tell Lissa? Or Frederick? Or, uh, any of the shepherds?”  
“That’s your decision to make. Either way, I’m fine with it.”  
They laid with each other for a while- a general and his tactician enjoying each other’s company. Robin moved his head to stare at Chrom from above.  
“You know, you look better already.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah. You aren’t as pale.”  
Chrom didn’t know how to respond to this observation, so he just placed his lips on Robin’s once again. He ran a hand through the tactician’s white, messy, fluffy hair. He’d fantasized about doing this only Naga knows how many times, and it almost seemed like it was too good to be true, now that he was actually doing it.  
“Mmf- Chrom-”  
Robin forced his way away from the prince, sort of pushing him off. There was no ill intent, but Chrom still was hurt.  
“It’s getting late. We probably should get back to the castle.”  
“Gods, are you serious?”  
It was then when Chrom noticed the originally light blue sky had turned to a orange-ish hue. Robin was right.  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice…”  
“No, it’s fine.”  
Robin got up onto his feet, holding out a hand for Chrom to grab.  
“You know, there’s better places to take a nap than on the ground.”  
Chrom smirked at this, taking Robin’s hand and getting up as well.  
And so, the two men started to walk back to the castle, hand in hand.

**Author's Note:**

> i might add a chapter onto this but probably not.  
> this lil shit has been in the making for two months because i hit a Massive Writer's Block n i'm probably going to get one again when i try to work on it  
> constructive criticism is welcomed! praise is welcomed! you could literally just comment "eat pant" and it'd make my day!!! please!!!


End file.
